February 28, 2000

Arthur Andersen: new managing partner tackles the new economy

The view out her office window is breathtaking. Patricia Bedient, new managing partner at the Seattle office of Arthur Andersen, can look down on Pioneer Square or out at Elliott Bay.

Bedient

From her post, she watches as new buildings rise to provide more room for e-commerce and high-tech companies. What she sees is evidence of a new economy.

Since coming to the Seattle office in June, Bedient’s plan has been to show more people what she sees.

"I don’t need an office this big," she says. She talks of taking down a few walls and bringing everyone in the office closer together. Communication, it seems, has become more valued than the corner office -- just one of the changes brought about by the "new economy."

Lacking a concrete definition, Bedient says the "new economy" can be described with words like "global, fast, dynamic, creative, entrepreneurial... all of these things."

When she began with Arthur Andersen 25 years ago, it was tangible, fixed assets, like buildings, equipment and corner offices that held a company’s value. Now, the value placed on intangibles is rising, such as brand name, ideas and human resources. These "non-book" assets may make up 80 percent of a company’s market value.

Bedient says she isn’t here to overhaul the way Arthur Andersen does everything. "My job wasn’t to come and fix something that was broken," she says, but to build on the existing practices in order to "really capitalize on the new economy."

Part of her goal is to take services the firm offers and make them accessible to startup companies in business-to-business services and e-commerce.

Last month, Arthur Andersen announced a new strategy in the financial services market, Arthur Andersen Ventures which will handle financial planning, tax advising and even payroll for companies in the early stages of development in exchange for equity investments. The focus will be on companies providing Internet-based services.

According to worldwide managing partner Jim Wadia, this is the first of several new approaches the firm is considering. During the next five years, the company plans to invest $500 million, a new focus for a company that traditionally offered only advice. Bedient says the idea is to use the firm's networks, relationships and experience to provide startups with the infrastructure they need to become thriving businesses.

"It really broadens the whole venue of services that can be provided to businesses," Bedient says. "We may do their whole account services."

This answers a need for companies that are moving from a few people in a small office to a fully functioning company. "They have to have a certain amount of infrastructure," she says. "It’s tough to get it fast if you have to build it one by one."

While Arthur Andersen will continue to offer its primary services, such as auditing, Bedient is quick to add that "we are very careful to make sure we don’t have conflict of interest. We can’t be auditor for a company we also keep books for."

She says brick-and-mortar companies need to think about their place in the new economy as well. "They may not have dot-com in their name, but they need dot-com in their strategy," she says. "If they haven’t been thinking of it, they need to."

Change, however, is difficult.

"What’s different today is speed," she says. "As fast as things are changing today, they’ll change even faster."